[HARDCORE HIP-HOP] There was a time when grimy New York rap dictated the rules of the hip-hop genre. If an MC was too pop or didn’t have the hardcore street lyricism of an M.O.P. or a Mobb Deep, they were labeled an outsider—a cardboard cutout created by the record industry. Times have changed: Hip-hop has moved away from the street and more into experimentalism. A few N.Y. MCs still hold onto that aggressive mindset, though, including Ill Bill and Vinnie Paz. Both rappers have made careers of spitting hardcore realism over boom-bap beats. It made sense that the two would team together for an album, 2011’s Heavy Metal Kings, the follow-up soon to be released. But just like their predecessors, it’s when the two MCs step back from the violence and examine why it’s occurring that they are the most poignant.